Automotive

I usually would consider fellow Northwest resident, columnist, and left-wing greenie, David Roberts, to be of the same worldview on, well, anything. However, in his latest Grist column, I agree with his closing paragraph…

Anyway, not to overthink it (ahem), but the ad is not just another pot shot at greens. It’s an appeal to a new and growing demographic that isn’t hard-core environmentalist—and doesn’t particularly like hard-core environmentalists—but that basically wants to do the right thing. Audi’s effort to reach them, however clumsy, is actually a bit ahead of the curve.

Yes, I am the target audience of this ad (if that’s an accurate translation); and I would hardly call it clumsy. It made me laugh out loud! And, unlike many other ads (US Census Bureau, I’m looking at you), I remembered who was selling what. The riff on Cheap Trick’s “Dream Police” was brilliant, too.

Look, I’m in favor of conservation, I recycle to keep the regular “garbage” output to a minimum, and I try to simply use less of anything that I must. Not because of some moral authority; mostly because it’s practical. And I want my kids to have the same shot at fishing and hunting that I had growing up. I want them to have the same or similar air and water quality I enjoyed. I want logging companies to keep up the great work they’ve been doing with one of our many great, renewable and sustainable resources here in the Northwest. And, I would really like to get out of my old 90s Ford clunker into a new 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid!

Audi is a bit rich for my blood, and I would much rather buy an award-winning American vehicle that is not only a hybrid, but is also more survivable than a hatchback.

Still, the torque those diesel engines put out are amazing, and, well, Audi makes some amazing vehicles, period, but I digress.

Anyway, I part company with David on his insistence in calling those of us limited-government types, “teabaggers.” Which is rather ironic — though not surprising — considering his opening whine line…

Is it me or were the Super Bowl commercials this year unusually ugly, misogynistic, and, worst of all, unfunny?

Let me make this very clear: I like bicycles and I like the idea of biking to work/elsewhere without having to use gas and getting/staying fit in the process. In fact, I would REALLY love to start riding to my local Park&Ride instead of driving (it’s only 4-5 miles away). However, I DO NOT like Critical Mass.

Just after 7 p.m. Friday, the group of at least 100 bicyclists was moving en masse down East Aloha Street when a man and his girlfriend in a Subaru station wagon tried to pull out of a parking spot, said Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson.

For years, Critical Mass has held monthly public bike rides through Seattle to demonstrate for bicyclists’ road rights. The riders commonly engage in what they call “corking,” in which several bikers block cars while the mass of riders passes.

According to Jamieson, witnesses told officers that as the Critical Mass group moved down the street blocking traffic, some riders got in the way of the Subaru and prevented it from leaving. Some bikers sat on the car and were banging on it, he said.

“The driver was pretty fearful that he was about to be assaulted by the bicyclists,” Jamieson said.

There is an alleged eyewitness account of the rider of that smashed bike. It’s in the Seattle Stranger (aka Seattle’s Sex Rag), so you have to take it with a grain of salt. If it were in the Seattle Weekly, I’d give them the benefit of the doubt.

Other eyewitness accounts point out pretty clearly, to me, that the guy was being illegally detained and intimidated. He just wanted to move on and likely didn’t understand what was going on… not that he was required to know what was going on. Sure he may have been yelling, but he just wanted out of there. He probably grazed a cyclist. I’ve heard of these CM participants going ape and kicking idling/waiting cars, so you can imagine the tizzy some might be sent into if they *gasp* were bumped by an evil vehicle they were detaining.

The whole thing clearly flew apart at some point. Whatever the driver did, it did not justify ANY other cyclists smashing in his windows and assulting him through a window. That is vigilantism and certainly not civil disobedience; much more like anarchy.

Anyway, my message to cyclists: we are aware of you. I spend most of my time downtown as a pedestrian and I get to observe many cyclists, drivers, and their interactions. Their interactions are mostly good. I see both run red lights, both occasionally going the wrong way down streets, and both, at one point or another, have nearly run me down/over when I have a clear right of way. What else I see cyclists doing: flying from street to sidewalk to street (something cars can’t casually do), yelling at cars as they’re cutting them off (drivers typically do this other drivers), flying through red lights long after it has turned (traffic cams now issue citations – can’t do so for cyclists).

Ford Motor, which devoted itself for nearly 20 years to putting millions of Americans into big pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles, is about to drastically alter its focus to building more small cars.

The struggling automaker, reacting to what it sees as a rapid and permanent shift in consumer tastes brought on by high gas prices, plans to unveil its new direction on Thursday, when it will report quarterly earnings.

Among the changes, Ford is expected to announce that it will convert three of its North American assembly plants from trucks to cars, according to people familiar with the plans.

And as part of the huge bet it is placing on the future direction of the troubled American auto industry, Ford will realign factories to manufacture more fuel-efficient engines and produce six of its next European car models for the United States market.

Honestly, they should have been doing this already. I mean, look at the way the Honda, Toyota, and Kia manufacturers have absolutely dominated that market! As one analyst states the obvious.

Industry analysts believe Ford cannot wait any longer to reshape its manufacturing operations and step up production of smaller cars.

“Trucks and SUV’s have been so central to their strategy for so long, but the bottom line is that consumers have moved on,” said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Duh. Let’s go, my fellow citizens, and be modest with our money and means of transport. Not because I suggest so or because the government makes you, but because it’s just a good freaking idea for all of us. It’s called stewardship.

So, when do we get to see the modest European Mondeo that Bond drove in Casino Royale? I own an older, American version (known as the Contour).